raincloud

have been on top of the world since last thursday. wednesday was a bit rough:
- 1st misunderstanding with luuk -- don't worry (just incase any of our support crew/fan club are reading this, was all resolved in a beautiful manner late in the evening and only love him more... )
- tiny mistake at work snowballed, had been resolved by the time i got in at 3pm, but had whole barrage of emails coppied to me from ppl trying to sort it out... and it had been my fault.
- family conference about helping out more around the house - which wasn't a problem till dad and i started stirring each other up (and not toward love and good works...)
wednesday night brought a desperate need for resolution with luuk and relaxation in general. talked through the whole bollocking day with luuk who was pretty much perfect (well, as much as anyone can be...) and i'm sure gave me a massage at some point, or at least lots of hugs.
anyway, went home and slept well and the rest of the week went fine and dandy. home group thurs night, got lots of study done friday morning and went to camp in the evening

camp was pretty relaxing which was just what the dr ordered - good sleeps, fabulicious food, and good talks (tho i missed the feature presentation as studying - will see him speak this weekend however so no loss). some good connection with luuk but we weren't off by ourselves and anti social hardly at all. went for a walk (thru the kaiapoi graveyard no less) on saturday avo but that was pretty much it.

sunday afternoon, took palmerston north folk to airport then had coffee at untouched world. home to study, got email off to profs

which i just got a not so great reply to... hence the raincloud. gr... am certain it can be sorted and will be no problem, am also sick of studying and about ready to give it up. only 3 months to go but also a bit of work to do...
have been looking at long term goals (part of a self-management seminar on the sunday at camp) and not sure how my studies really help me toward any of i want to do or be later... sticking with them despite my lack of enthusiasm would probably be more the point now - not a bad thing - but am far from enthusiastic so need much encouragement and not what i've got from prof. today...

so, prayed about it at dinner break, and read 2 chapters of john eldredge's 'journey of desire', and felt a bit better, then told work mate and (for focussing on it) felt a bit worse. wrote email to luuk, felt a bit better and now doing this am feeling much better - bigger picture or something. so much is going wonderfully, can't expect everything to be perfect. and my studies are not my highest priority so rather them go a bit bumpy than certain other things.

anyway, was up to sunday night,
monday, work from early (which was strangely light and cheery for a monday - won't say it's cuz the boss is in another continent) till 4.30. then went to the mall to buy present for luuk - but what i wanted was sold out so just got him a card instead. sometimes it's hard to express my gratefullness to him
so i got the one of the little girl with her finger up her nose and thanked him for loving me tho i'm sometimes difficult and messy...
he liked it.

would put the picture on here but can't find it online, and fair enough, cause i had to pay for it, why should anyone get it for free?
see now... scary emails from prof.s don't bring out the best in me.
shall spare you all my meanness and stop writing.

bliss

the week so far (thought it's been much longer than that since i posted) has been about perfect.

Sunday was the perfect day - drove out of town, after breakfast, toward Wainui. Went over the hills for the view and walked a wee way at the sign of the bellbird. then drove around to little river, got coffee and looked at gallery, then drove up to hilltop to drink coffee, and appreciate yet another spectacular view

onto wainui, where we set up our picnic blanket, on a tarpaulen, and had lunch, then coffee, and talked and just sat in silence, read our books, bibles, i even wrote in my journal. finished reading epic - by john eldredge - reccomend to anyone interested in the heart of things (christian perspective, but totally refreshing).

green tea and more appreciating the view

then it started cooling down and the sun was getting closer to the hills so we packed up and visited the cheese factory at barry's bay. bought ourselves a selection of cheeses, some wine, a few other treaties. then went around to devauchelles for an icecream and more photos. really is a remarkable country...

drove home - well back to luuk's, and sampled the wine, hung out with mike for a bit, got some fishnchips for dinner, then watched serenity, as we'd finished the tv series firefly the day before, and the movie wraps it all up. movie finished at 20 to 9, which we realised at 10 to 9, then bullied mike and merodie into leaving, went to my place and speed changed, to be only 20 mins late to matty's jazz review at sammy's jazz review. great party, despite being on a sunday night, and starting after 9 pm, so quite a late one since the next morning was really early. had work at 7.30, but others, more crazy or dedicated or something, were at the casino at 6am for the worldcup final, and breakfast.

i saw a snippet of it while getting a coffee at work, but by my next break italy had done their beautiful thing and everyone was back to talking about the all black who went on the field. teehee.

monday wouldn't have been part of the perfect week, except for the evening - booked flights for trip up north. going to meet luuk's whanau, visit some of mine in the area, then to see hillary in auckland, and probably my grandparents, before flying home. gonna be a fabulous four days. never booked tickets for 2 people before, very exciting.

then tuesday, had lunch with karla, after my lecture, then to work. lovely email from luuk to keep me going and give me something to look forward to... he picked me up at 8, and drove us round to taylor's mistake, where there was a picnic on the beach, wine, cheese and crackers (the wainui selection of seven cheeses - though we had the strong ones first so the milder ones weren't so impressive) and chocolate and green tea for later, sat on the beach under the high cloud (moonlight and stars would have been more romantic but clear nights mean cold nights and it was nice and mild, and i barely shiverred at all!)

all together a pretty fantastic three days. doing navs study with him tonight, which is always great - gets us talking about important stuff and being honest with eachother - good foundational stuff. but i don't see how the week can improve a whole lot on the last 3 days. if i can maintain this state of bliss, that'll be enough.